Photojournalist Andrey Stenin left for Ukraine on May 15, his mother Vera told RT after his disappearance in August. She said they last talked on the phone on July 17 - during that conversation her son said, “It's close. I’ll be coming home soon.”

Vera Stenina had been trying for weeks to find her son, missing
in war-torn eastern Ukraine. She told RT she had addressed the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for help, and had
urged Kiev to organize a search mission for the journalist.

"They said that they would try to look for him,” she
said, adding that the Red Cross showed “understanding”
of her problem.

Since Stenina was aware that “people are being tracked via
their mobile phones” in Ukraine, she tried to use the
internet to keep track of her son.

"I woke up in the morning and went online – to see if the
photos were there, that everything was alright. That’s how I kept
an eye on him, via the TV and internet,” she said.

Andrey Stenin was born in 1980 in the city of Pechora in
northwestern Russia. He began his career at Rossiyskaya Gazeta
newspaper, where he was employed as a correspondent from 2003,
and Gazeta.ru.

In 2008, Andrey took a professional interest in photography, and
worked for such news media as Reuters, the Associated Press,
Agence France Presse and Russia’s Itar-Tass, Kommersant and RIA
Novosti.

"He is probably one of the most experienced Russian
photojournalists, who has witnessed many wars. He has lived
through Syria, Libya, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan. He was at numerous
trouble spots, and he took pictures everywhere he went and sent
really outstanding photographs, valued by various media,"
political analyst Yury Matsarsky said on radio after news of
Stenin's disappearance broke in August.

Since 2009, Andrey Stenin had been employed as photo
correspondent by RIA Novosti, which was transformed into Rossiya
Segodnya international news agency in 2014.

In the course of his coverage, Stenin witnessed various
emergencies, protests, trials and traveled into warzones. In 2010
and 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Russian Silver Camera.

From the beginning of the Ukrainian coup, Stenin was at the
center of it. He documented the events in Kiev’s Maidan Square in
February, then the horrors of Odessa, the Crimean transition to
Russia, and most lately the fierce fighting in parts of eastern
Ukraine.

He sent photos of soldiers of the Ukrainian army captured by the
armed militia, the horrific results of Ukrainian artillery
shelling of militia-held cities and the crash site of the
Malaysian Airlines plane that was downed over the Donetsk Region
in July.

"Andrey was doing his job professionally: he covered both
sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. His work was
appreciated by colleagues and a wide audience, as it showed the
world the sufferings of Ukraine and its people, no matter which
side of the conflict they are," Dmitry Kiselyov, general
director of Rossiya Segodnya, said.

Stenin went missing on August 5 as he was covering the Ukrainian
army’s campaign against the anti-Kiev rebels in the country’s
southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk Regions.

His employers at Rossiya Segodnya said they had failed to obtain
any information on their journalist from the Kiev authorities. In
mid-August, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton
Gerashchenko said that Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian
Security Service for “aiding and glorifying terrorism.”
However, he backtracked on that statement soon afterwards.

Urging the journalist's release, a number of events in support of
Andrey Stenin took place around the world in August.

Now a selection of Stenin’s recent work is on display in the
street leading to the main entrance of the news agency’s
building. At a press-conference, Stenin’s grieving colleagues
spoke of him as a professional photojournalist, an excellent
reporter and a reliable friend, who preferred hotspots to working
in an office.

“Once I asked him: ‘Why do you go to war so often?’ He
replied: ‘And why did you go so often – 28 times in Chechnya?’ I
said that I went for one picture and then he replied: ‘I also go
there to take pictures’,” photo correspondent, Vladimir
Vyatkin, who has worked for RIA Novosti since 1968, recalled.
“[His] photos are very professional, necessary for history,
not just ours, but history in general. Sooner or later somebody
will have to answer for the atrocities that are happening now in
Ukraine, and his pictures will be visual documents. Andrey did it
honestly, professionally, did it great,” he added.

His colleague, Vladimir Astapkovich, a photo correspondent, also
stressed that Stenin was a person you felt secure with in
difficult situations.

"Stenin was someone who would help you in a critical
situation. I remember one of the first unauthorized rallies
Moscow. The crowd, police, everyone is running, pushing. You run
with everyone else. You get knocked off your feet, you almost
fall. Suddenly, someone grabs you - Andrey. And then you run
together. Short break… A cigarette… A quick chat and back to
work,” Astapkovich recalled.